“You can’t connect the dots looking forward you can only connect them looking backwards. 

So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. 

You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. 

Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path.” — Steve Jobs

Fourteen years ago someone read one of my stories.

They didn’t like it. They told me to give up and do something else.

And this made me angry.

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“Our actions may be impeded . . . but there caan be no impeding our intentions or dispositions. Because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting.

The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” – Marcus Aurelius

We often view philosophy as this dry, complex, and abstract pursuit that is reserved only for the most intelligent among us. It seems quite useless in our day to day lives.

There’s an exception, of course. Stoicism is remarkably clear and practical. And, truth be told, once you understand its main principles you begin to see them in a lot of other aspects of life, from religion to cognitive behavioral therapy.

One of Stoicism’s main ideas is to let go of what you can’t control. In other words, if you are upset by something you can’t control, then you’re suffering needlessly. Continue reading →

The only calibration that counts is how much heart people invest, how much they ignore their fears of being hurt or caught out or humiliated. And the only thing people regret is that they didn’t live boldly enough, that they didn’t invest enough heart, didn’t love enough. Nothing else really counts at all. – Ted Hughes

You’re going to die. No, this is not some metaphorical bullshit. You are going to die. They are going to plant you in the ground, and all that you are will decay until there’s nothing left. Your bones will turn to dust and that dust will get carried on through the ages.

Your time on this earth is limited. How do you want to spend it? Think about it. I mean, really think about it.

Lukewarm is no good. Being fearful is not worth it. Worrying about what other people think or say or do. Talking to yourself in a negative tone, telling yourself bullshit stories of why you can’t do it, complaining that life is hard. No shit, life’s hard. It’s meant to be like that. Continue reading →

The truth does not change based on your inability to accept it.

I do my best to live life in a way that I am aware of what I do, while also trying not to chase things that are outside of my control.

Here are some of those truths that help me stay in control of my life.

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